The Cricket Thread

Ben Stokes making the impossible possible again I see.

Based on what I saw:

Hierarchy of spinners should be Bess/Leach > Mo.
Mo still can't bat. Neither can Jonny.
Dan Lawrence is the next middle-order cab off the rank.
Mahmood has to improve a lot.
Looks like the first test will be a shootout between Denly and Crawley for the 3 spot once Root is back.

James Bracey was the biggest beneficiary of this match. Only got out in the second innings looking to up the run rate as well. Caught down leg-side in the first. He's jumped to the front of the pack in terms of backup top-order batsmen.

With Bracey/Crawley as backup top-order batsmen and Lawrence looming for a middle-order berth things look rosy.

Bowling stocks look ok too.

England squad: Ben Stokes (capt), James Anderson, Jofra Archer, Dominic Bess, Stuart Broad, Rory Burns, Jos Buttler (wk), Zak Crawley, Joe Denly, Ollie Pope, Dom Sibley, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

So the batsmen are set, it's the bowlers that will have to wait and see.

Leach in the reserves... as is Mahmood for some baffling reason, while Joverton (who gave a good showing) is left out. Really quite irritated with Denly’s inclusion: he had a bobbins warm-up game and this is the perfect time to be blooding new talent. I hope that the reasoning is there’s no point in throwing somebody else into the mix when Root will be back in a match.

Again, looking like a Broaderson special. :roll:

Broad wasn't too good in the warm-up, probably behind Archer, Wood, Anderson and Woakes.

Bad news: I am about 30 miles away from The Rose Bowl and, despite the weather here being absolutely perfect for many days, it's now tipping it down with rain.

Standard strawberry floating procedure.

Googling the weather it looks like it should ease off around lunchtime?

Balladeer wrote:Googling the weather it looks like it should ease off around lunchtime?

Let's hope so.

In other news, word on the street is that Broad and Woakes are missing out.

In any other circumstance I’d be happy to see Wood and Archer bowling together, but on a muggy day with fast turnarounds between Tests and only two sources of genuine pace (that are fit and around) this feels unwise.

1.30pm: England win the toss and bat

England: 1 Rory Burns, 2 Dom Sibley, 3 Joe Denly, 4 Zak Crawley, 5 Ben Stokes (capt), 6 Ollie Pope, 7 Jos Buttler (wk), 8 Dom Bess, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Mark Wood, 11 James Anderson.

West Indies: 1 John Campbell, 2 Kraigg Brathwaite, 3 Shamarh Brooks, 4 Shai Hope, 5 Roston Chase, 6 Jermaine Blackwood, 7 Shane Dowrich (wk), 8 Jason Holder (capt), 9 Alzarri Joseph, 10 Kemar Roach, 11 Shannon Gabriel.

Fuxache Dom :fp:

England 0/1

This’ll be good, better turn the cricket on!

Oh they’re walking off already.

The true cricket experience. :dread:

42% of the way to a Dentury.

Given how chuffing long we’ve waited for some cricket you’d hope the umpires would be a bit less chuffing stupid about bad light. :evil:

Big Shannon. :datass:

No Dentury today.

What a shame.

Burns more of a shame.

Not going great I see... But lovely to have cricket back, the perfect WFH sport.

I know Root is missing and the batting line up is quite inexperienced, but I would say there are very few batters in the team that I would want to rely on, which is concerning. Root and Stokes... then I'm pretty unsure.

Time for Stokes and Buttler to save us...

The Cricket Thread

Who is online

Affiliates